Legislature Quiet on Immigration, Abortion

The legislative session has not been without drama. But with the deadline to introduce general bills passing earlier this week, it seems like there have been relatively few bills related to traditional red-meat issues.

Only one bill title mentions abortion and it was put forth by Rep. Nick Bain, D-Corinth. Bain's bill, HB 513, says that "any discussion of abortion must be presented from the medical perspective of the potential long-term and short-term hazards presented to patients as the result of having the procedure performed."

Sen. Michael Watson, a R-Pascagoula, has a bill that would make it a felony if exposing a fetus or a child to a controlled substance or chemical substance causes serious physical injury to the child or fetus. Watson's bill carves out exceptions for legally administered prescription drugs.

Attempts at regulating immigration are also non-existent thus far. Besides a bill from Rep. Reecy Dickson, D-Macon, that authorizes a task force to study the role of immigrant communities in alleviating poverty, we haven't seen renewed attempts to impose strict show-your-papers kinds of immigration bills (at least not yet).

That said, there are a handful of gun bills.

U.S. Senate hopeful Chris McDaniel would prohibit state cooperation with any federal effort to ban firearms. Rep. Mark Formby, R-Picayune, has a similar bill in the House. Another proposal, from Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, makes certain exceptions to concealed-carry permits for gun and ammo-related companies.